No-Knead Whole Wheat Masala Bread | ABin5

The simplest bread ready in 5 minutes

No need to knead the dough

I have been making No-knead whole wheat bread for a long time now from the New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. Initially the recipe didn’t turn out as great I expected and after some tweaking I realised that whatever whole wheat flour I use, the water content is not enough, the dough was always too dry.

Add flavourings of your choice like Indian spices

Use a sharp bread knife to cut a pattern on the loaf before baking

I assume that the whole wheat flour available in US has different moisture content than Indian variety. Well for a novice like me this reason sounded plausible enough. After few trials and errors, where I adjusted both milk and water quantity little by little, I found that now the bread is reasonably good.

Shape the dough into a loaf or a free form boule or baguette

The loaf makes a perfect slice for sandwich

I also experimented by adding some Indian Masala (spices) in the dough while giving it the initial mix. I have shaped the dough differently, once in a loaf pan and the other time as free form baguette.

Preparation

1.

Mix the yeast, salt, honey and oil water and milk in a lidded (not airtight) food container. Mix in the remaining dry ingredients (along with Indian spices if you are making masala bread) without kneading. You can use a wooden spoon or a heavy-duty stand mixer. If you are not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

2.

Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate the container of dough and use over the next 5 days.

3.

On the baking day, grease a loaf pan (8½ X 4½ inch). Using wet hands, scoop out the dough. This dough is pretty sticky, and often it's easiest to handle with wet hands. Quickly shape into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Elongate the ball to form an oval loaf. Drop the loaf in the prepared pan.

4.

Cover with plastic wrap ad allow to rest for 90 minutes. In the meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 170-180°C. Before baking, flour the top of the loaf and slash, using the tip of a serrated bread knife. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until deeply browned and firm.

5.

Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely before slicing; otherwise you won't get well-cut sandwich slices. If the loaf sticks, wait 10 minutes and it will steam itself out of the pan.

Notes

You can use dry active yeast, I have used instant as that’s what I am most comfortable using.

I use olive oil in most of my baking, you can use any oil of your choice.

You can also use room temperature water and milk instead of lukewarm.

For making Masala Bread, you can add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder, 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds and some dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) in step 1.